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Hurricane Andrews Landfall in South Florida. Part I

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Hurricane Andrews Landfall in South Florida. Part I 304 WEATHER AND FORECASTING VOLUME 11 Hurricane Andrew's Landfall in South Florida. Part I: Standardizing Measurements for Documentation of Surface Wind Fields MARK D. POWELL AND SAMUEL H. HOUSTON Hurricane Research Division, NOAA/AOML, Miami, Florida TIMOTHY A. REINHOLD Department of Civil Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina (Manuscript received 10 April 1995, in ®nal form 8 February 1996) ABSTRACT Hurricane Andrew's landfall in south Florida left a swath of destruction, including many failed anemometer recording systems. Extreme destruction led to exaggerated claims of the range of wind speeds that caused such damage. The authors accumulated all available data from surface platforms at heights ranging from 2 to 60 m and reconnaissance aircraft at altitudes near 3 km. Several procedures were used to represent the various types of wind measurements in a common framework for exposure, measurement height, and averaging period. This set of procedures allowed documentation of Andrew's winds in a manner understandable to both meteorologists and wind engineers. The procedures are accurate to {10% for marine and land observing platforms, and boundary layer model adjustments of ¯ight-level winds to the surface compare to within 20% of the nearest surface measurements. Failure to implement the adjustment procedures may lead to errors of 15%±40%. Quality control of the data is discussed, including treatment of peak wind observations and determination of the radius of maximum winds at the surface. 1. Introduction a life of their own and still persist with the public; many Hurricane Andrew's landfall in south Florida on 24 residents feel that they have survived a storm with August 1992 (May®eld et al. 1994) ranks as the worst winds much worse than actually occurred. natural disaster in U.S. history in terms of destruction A controversy developed after a preliminary report and property loss. Andrew was the ®rst Saf®r±Simpson from the Wind Engineering Research Council (WERC (Simpson and Riehl 1980) category 4 hurricane to 1992) suggested weaker winds than those issued in ad- strike a major urban area in Florida since Donna in visories and a preliminary report by the National Hur- 1960. Hurricanes of similar intensity to Andrew may ricane Center (NHC 1992). Additional reports based become more frequent in the Atlantic basin if climatic on damage investigations and model simulations fueled in¯uences on circulation patterns lead to a return to a the controversy (Wallace 1992). The implications of period of active hurricane formation and landfall these and other wind studies would in¯uence the out- (Landsea 1993). come of millions of dollars worth of litigation related Immediately following Andrew, great interest arose to storm damage. Two sides of the wind speed issue regarding the magnitude and extent of the winds re- emerged: 1) Andrew was an act of God and it is im- sponsible for both the widespread damage and the lo- possible to economically design and build a structure calized swaths of destruction. Unsubstantiated rumors to withstand such winds, and 2) Andrew's winds were circulated in the media of extreme sustained winds no stronger than other recent hurricanes such as Hugo ``clocked'' anywhere from 150 to 214 mph at several in 1989; with good workmanship and proper safety fac- locations (the Pioneer Museum, Turkey Point nuclear tors taken into account, structures should have been power plant, Homestead Air Force Base, and a U.S. able to hold up to the wind loading. The merits of these Army communications facility) where wind records viewpoints are still being argued in the courts. Com- were nonexistent or incomplete. These rumors took on pounding the controversy was the tendency for mete- orologists and wind engineers to use different termi- nology and procedures for dealing with surface wind measurements and analyses. Corresponding author address: Dr. Mark D. Powell, Hurricane The purpose of this paper is to outline a series of Research Division, NOAA/AOML, 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149. analysis methods for hurricane wind observations that E-mail: [email protected] produce wind ®elds in a common framework for both q 1996 American Meteorological Society /3q05 0218 Mp 304 Wednesday Aug 07 05:51 PM AMS: Forecasting (September 96) 0218 SEPTEMBER 1996 POWELL ET AL. 305 FIG. 1. Track of Hurricane Andrew's wind center, with locations of surface observations and their survivability. Numbers refer to sources listed in Table 1. Site 26 (not shown) is about 12 km north of site 25. meteorologists and wind engineers. These methods yses of Andrew's strongest surface winds, wind ®eld conform to accepted practice in the ®elds of micro- decay over south Florida, and potential applications meteorology and wind engineering and design and are for real-time analysis and preliminary damage as- being employed in a surface wind analysis system un- sessment. der development for eventual transfer to NHC. This paper will ®rst discuss failures of anemometer 2. Data availability and anemometer system systems relative to Andrew's track and strategies for problems improving their performance. The turbulent and con- vective characteristics of hurricane winds will then be The storm track (Fig. 1) represents the track of the considered as suggested by spectral density calcula- circulation center, based on wind measurements from tions from several storms. The importance of a com- U.S. Air Force Reserves reconnaissance aircraft at 3- mon observing framework will be highlighted, stress- km altitude and public reports of calm observed at the ing height adjustment to the reference level of 10 m surface; positions of wind measurement sites are also and its dependence on roughness and stability over land plotted. Wind measurement systems failed for a va- and offshore. Adjustment to standard terrain (open ex- riety of reasons (Table 1) including lack of recording posure) over land follows, together with the determi- capability and mast, crossarm, and guy wire failures nation of the maximum 1-min sustained wind speed caused by a combination of design faults, high winds, based on gust factor data and averaging period. Finally, and debris. Most sites were installed for a speci®c pur- quality control of the Andrew dataset is described, in- pose: aviation, air quality, agriculture, general inter- cluding consideration of the placement of adjusted re- est. In our opinion, very few sites would have failed connaissance wind observations. The companion paper if they were installed to survive hurricane episodes. (Powell and Houston 1996) describes objective anal- The fact that several instruments survived that lacked /3q05 0218 Mp 305 Wednesday Aug 07 05:51 PM AMS: Forecasting (September 96) 0218 306 WEATHER AND FORECASTING VOLUME 11 TABLE 1. Anemometer survival in Hurricane Andrew: complete, partial, and failed sources. Size Comments Station failed or dismantled, record unavailable or unusable (14) 1. NOAA/NWS/MIA Electrical problem station out before storm 2. FAA/LLWAS One station performed erratically 3. NOAA/AOML Dismantled to protect atrium windows 4. UM/RSMAS Dismantled to protect sensors used for climate program 5. UM/engineering Inadequate information on sampling 6. Metro Dade/emergency operations center No recording capability, log unavailable 7. Metro ®re/rescue No recording capability, log unavailable 8. Army communication site No recording capability, no log 9±11. Agricultural extension service Three sites had central datalogger waterlogged and shorted 12. Metro Water and Sewer pump 5 Mast failed, chart record timing error, calibration error 13. Homestead AFB Power turned off to wind recorder before storm 14. Ocean Reef emergency operations center Station dismantled for maintenance Station failed with partial record (10) 15. NOAA/NHC (NHC) Crossarm rotated, dropped sensor to roof 16. Seaward explorer No recording capability, manual obs 17. FAA/Tamiami Airport No recording, manual obs, crossarm rotated, mast failed 18. Perrine homeowner (PER) No recording capability, manual obs, mast failed 19. Fowey Rocks C-MAN Mast failed at base attachment after 0800 UTC 20. FPL 1 Turkey Point Mast failed, cups blown out of frames 21, 22. FPL 2 60-m mast (two sensors) Cups blew out of frames, no backup power 23. Agricultural Extension Service No obs transmitted after 0730 UTC (one ob only at Glider Port) 24. Metro Water and Sewer at Virginia Key 1 Station survived with complete record (10) 25. NOAA/Miami Beach DARDC 26. NOAA/NOS Next-Generation Water Level site at Haulover Pier 27. Metro Water and Sewer at Virginia Key 2 28±31. FAA/LLWAS (four sites) at Miami International Airport 32. Sailing yacht Mara Cu, North Key Largo 33. National Park Service station at Manatee Bay 34. National Park Service station at Joe Bay recording capability is disturbing. ``Eyewitness'' ob- After a recommendation by the Interdepartmental servations from the digital or analog display of sites Hurricane Conference (OFCM 1993a), a retro®tting without recorders were extremely dif®cult to docu- kit was developed to lock the crossarm on similar sys- ment and con®rm. In particular, determining the time tems. In addition, the Automated Surface Observing and duration of extreme winds observed in this man- System (ASOS) anemometer design is also being ner was especially dif®cult. studied for similar failure potential. An example of one type of failure suffered by an- The highest surface winds measured in the storm emometers installed by the Federal Aviation Admin- came from anemometers (Perrine and Fowey Rocks C- istration (FAA) and by the National Weather Service MAN) that experienced mast failures shortly after- (NWS) is shown in Fig. 2. This type of failure oc- ward. As discussed below, both measurements oc- curred at Tamiami Airport and at NHC. Conduit pipe curred in the northern eyewall, in close proximity to used for the crossarm unscrewed itself when subjected the maximum 10-s ¯ight-level winds measured by the to torque produced by the drag force on the anemom- air force reconnaissance aircraft.
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